Alberta’s Castle Mountain will expand lift-served terrain by 25 percent next season as it opens its first detachable quad on Haig Ridge, located above the existing Huckleberry lift. Castle is currently the second largest resort in North America without a high speed lift behind only Red Mountain, British Columbia. Installation of the quad chair, which previously operated as Angel Express at Sunshine Village, represents the largest capital investment in Castle’s nearly 60 year history. Independent Castle Mountain has a long history of repurposing used lifts from Sunshine, Beaver Creek in Colorado and Angel Fire, New Mexico. “The addition of a lift serving this phenomenal terrain will forever transform our guests’ experience”, said Dean Parkinson, General Manager. “The terrain that will soon be available to all has been well loved by our cat skiing guests for over a decade, primarily for its deep snow and great skiing. We are excited to finally be opening up this terrain for everyone to enjoy.”
The 20 tower Haig 1 lift will span 4,757 linear feet with an impressive 1,805 foot vertical rise and five minute ride time. It’s is expected to open for the 2025-26 season, marking the end of cat skiing in the expansive Haig zone. The project is known for now as Haig 1 but will receive a new name before opening. “Castle Mountain Resort is proud to be taking on this project, utilizing its fantastic team, augmented with subject matter experts to ensure the success of the project,” the resort said in a release. “The lift will receive mechanical, electrical, and operational upgrades in order to be ready to go for December 2025.”
Lift Blog 
What would be the new terrain’s exposure? Looks southern and southwesterly
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Primarily East. Fairly similar to a lot of Castle’s existing exposure.
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Congrats on Castle for this transformative lift!
It will be such a pleasure riding this new terrain next season!
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They are installing a 1988 vintage high speed quad?!
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Most of the systems in the lift are still supported by LPA, and they are a smaller operation.
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Refurbished.
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I wish Castle well, but I do know the mechs at Sunshine were happy to have Angel off their hands. It is a wonderful lift and as long as it gets a good refurb I hope it will be fine – I do worry though ….
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So I am curious. Would the motor have needed to be upgraded to a bigger HP when moving from Sunshine Village to Castle Mountain? In it’s old location as the Angel Express at Sunshine Village AB, it was 1243 vertical, 5217 feet length. In it’s new location it will be 1805 feet vertical, 4757 feet in length. Does this mean that the lift has to be upgraded to a new motor with bigger HP on reinstallation?
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